PASSING IT ON – Hyannis FD Lt. Roger Cadrin, who retires Monday, shares a smile with son Jeremy, who’s a call firefighter in West Barnstable.

Roger Cadrin protected Hyannis for 38 years

He’s a teacher. He’s a diver. He’s a bartender. He’s a hamburger-flipper. He’s a mechanic. He’s a self-confessed “golfoholic.” He’s a Harley guy. He’s a poet.

Oh, and by the way, he’s saved a lot of lives, Whether by putting out fires, doing CPR, heading out in a rescue boat, or teaching bad drivers how to improve, he’s Lt. Roger E. Cadrin of the Hyannis Fire Department,

And he’s going to retire in style. His last day of duty is Sunday, when a 1950 Mack fire truck – which he drove in his early days in the profession --is scheduled to pick him up and deliver him to his last 24-hour shift at the station on High School Road Extension.

When he leaves on Monday morning, he will celebrate both his 55th birthday and his retirement from 38 years in the fire and rescue service.

“One of the hardest things for human beings to do is to listen to the right thing,” Cadrin said as he reflected on how he wound up wearing a “Hyannis Fire and Rescue” shirt that says “Lieutenant.”

He was holding – literally – an envelope with his retirement papers in it. He used the back to draw a doodle to explain. “The line between this envelope and how I got into the fire service,” he said, “is a matter of my skipping a karate class.”

The Hyannis Fire Department, under the leadership of Captain Richard Farrenkopf, had just started an auxiliary to train young people about their work. Cadrin went to the vocational school that was then part of Barnstable High School, and he knew Farrenkopf’s son Eric. The younger Farrenkopf invited Cadrin to an organizational meeting for the auxiliary.

Cadrin had signed up for a karate class that same night, but decided that the information about a possible career was worth his time. After an unpaid year in the auxiliary, and then a stint as a call firefighter, Cadrin was invited by the chief at the time, Glenn Clough, to consider a job.

It was a time, said Cadrin, when liability insurance for several call firefighters had become more expensive than salaries and benefits for a few more full-timers. Cadrin said yes.

“I’m a huge believer in God,” Cadrin said, and the fire service was not where he expected to go, but he does feel that there was divine guidance in where he wound up working. Unlike many firefighters, Cadrin did not come from a fire service family. He had worked since he was 12 in his father’s restaurants, first a Kemp’s hamburger franchise, and then in his dad’s own business, Ray’s Sub Shop at the corner of Barnstable Road and Center Street.

He joked that he’ll retire at only “number three in seniority” from the Hyannis department: “That’s because the two Farrenkopfs won’t leave.” He was laughing as he spoke of his friends Eric and Craig, who, he said,” taught me so much.” As Cadrin and Craig Farrenkopf passed in a hallway during Cadrin’s interview, they jostled playfully. “That’s what I’ll miss – the camaraderie,” said Cadrin.

He recalled that he and Craig’s brother Eric had permission to leave the high school whenever the fire siren sounded in those days before pagers.

What’s next after the 1950 Mack fire truck picks up Cadrin for his last shift?

He loves to teach. He is certified by the National Safety Council to lead eight-hour courses that speeders and drivers under the influence must take in a last-ditch effort to keep their licenses. For these seminars, called Attitudinal Dynamics of Driving, Cadrin said that he “breaks the ice” by reminding his students that “I’ve made mistakes, too. The point is to learn from our mistakes.”

He said that he plans to continue teaching that course, which meets “two or three Saturdays a month.” A month? That’s right, he said, with around 20 students each time. And that’s only on the Cape. There are such classes all around Massachusetts.

What does Cadrin see in the future of the service to which he has given so much of his life?

“Terrorism. It’s becoming domestic,” said the man who has personalized his fire helmet with remembrances of 9/11 as well as with religious symbols and prayers.

Also, he said, carbon monoxide has become more of a problem as houses are built with better and better insulation. “We know that carbon monoxide sticks to your red blood cells and actually prevents your body from absorbing the oxygen it needs,” he explained. Even lighting too many candles in a tightly-closed house can elevate the deadly gas’s level.

The lieutenant said that he has seen “tremendous” growth in Hyannis.. But now, he said, “it’s a younger man’s job” to work in fire and rescue. His only son, Jeremy, is a call firefighter in West Barnstable.

Cadrin has written a poem about the firefighting life that he has copyrighted and sold engraved on mirrors for the benefit of the families of his colleagues who died in the Worcester warehouse fire. “I think about the fragility of life,” he said.

Then he turns to his retirement packet again and draws a picture. “I used to have a sticker on my car a long time ago,” he said of his versatility, “and it said, ‘Autos by day, Subs by night, Fire in between.’”